


See You in a Bit

by DeckofDragons



Category: Futurama
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Gore, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, M/M, Minor Injuries, mechanical gore, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:08:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29671893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Bender gets himself into trouble while helping Fry escape from an alien prison.
Relationships: Philip J. Fry/Bender Rodriguez
Comments: 10
Kudos: 8





	1. I'll Be Fine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hydie0Lecter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hydie0Lecter/gifts).



> On my Frender Drabbles fic, I take requests (also, just in general I take requests) and Hydie0Lecter requested "Can you do Bender getting himself killed to save Fry?" But well, as I'm sure you can guess based off this being the 1st of 4 chapters, it ended up being a lot more than just a drabble because I got super-duper inspired by it and then a bit carried away on top of that, so it gets its own fic.

In hindsight perhaps Fry should’ve predicted that going on a mission without Leela was a dumb idea. But he’d been so excited by the thought of it just being just himself and Bender for once, like a date but not because they were working. Also, it had been a chance to prove that he was a competent pilot and capable of being in charge of a delivery mission. He’d even promised Professor Farnsworth and Hermes when they’d expressed doubts that he’d partake in no funny business; he’d just fly to the destination, deliver the package and go home. He’d done his best and truly had intended to keep that promise, even going so far as to say ‘no’ to Bender when he’d suggested they go off on a joyride with the ship before going to deliver the package. But alas, no matter his intentions, doing his best wasn’t good enough.

This was far from the first time he’d been arrested and imprisoned for unknowingly and/or accidentally breaking the law on an alien planet but it was without a doubt one of the more painful and scary instances. They’d beaten him black and blue, thrown him in a rusty jail cell and told him he was going to be publicly executed as soon as they had everything for it was ready. They’d lacked the decency to tell him anything about how long that would take.

Despite that looming over him, he’d managed to get some sleep – more like succumbed to unconsciousness – but not enough to make him feel even mildly rested. And now that he was awake everything hurt too much to let him drift off again. They hadn’t even bothered to take off his manacles off; a bit too tight, they chafed painfully against his wrists. His left forearm was broken and hurt worst of all which was saying something because he’d taken quite the beating and hurt all over as a result. At least his nose and mouth were no longer bleeding, right? Not that that made any of this much better. There wasn’t anything he could do about any of it except lie there, staring through the cage bars at the sandstone wall on the other side, and try not to move too much.

If Leela had been here she would’ve been the one who’d volunteered to deliver the package to the Monarch since only one person was allowed in to see them at a time. And she would’ve been smart enough to not mistake them for a potted plant and then piss on them. In hindsight, that was pretty obvious; they were plant aliens living in a desert, what would a random potted plant be doing in a room he’d been pointed to as if it were the throne room? He’d really had to go though. And now, it was looking like he was going to die for it.

Ugh, he was such a dumbass. After all the years he’d had this job, one would think he’d eventually learn to be more careful in general, especially on alien planets, but nope. If he somehow got out of this alive, he was going to…

“Psst, Fry.”

“Bender?” Fry gingerly pushed himself up and looked all around the now suddenly darker room. It was empty. …

“Up here.”

There was a small barred window on the rear wall of his cell, up out of reach and the only source of light in the room; Bender’s face was now blocking it.

“I’m _so_ glad to see you!” Fry was almost always glad to see him but never had he been gladder. “I was starting to think they were really going to execute me.”

“Nah, I wouldn’t let them do that. It just took a while to find you because I had to be sneaky about it after they kicked me out and told me to never come back or they’d kill me. Whatever you did _really_ pissed them off, so it better have been something good enough to warrant all this trouble. If it’s because you got caught trying to steal something valuable, I’m proud of you for trying but disappointed in you for failing so miserably after having me as a role model all these years.”

If only it _had_ been that, it would’ve been less embarrassing. “Uh… I’ll tell you about it later.” He wasn’t in the mood to be laughed at and had more important things to think about like… “How are you going to get me out of here?” Even if Bender removed the bars from the window completely, there was no possible way Fry could fit through even if he could reach it.

“Here.” Bender extended an arm through the bars towards him. In his hand was an old-fashioned metal keyring with two keys jingling on it. “I pickpocketed them off the security guard while they were ‘escorting’ me out after they were done dealing with you. If they don’t work I guess I’ll have to break you out the old fashioned way.”

Fry carefully grabbed them and with a little bit of effort managed to get the small key into the lock on his manacles. Thankfully it not only fit but also turned. Freeing himself of them completely hurt, especially his broken forearm, and revealed just how horribly chafed his poor wrists had become in the hours he’d been locked in them, but it was a relief to be free of their weight at last. Next, he tried the big key in the cell door and again, it _worked_.

“Thank you!” He turned to look at Bender again. “You’re the best.”

“Yep, I know!” Bender grinned smugly.

“How am I going to get past the guards though? There are some like right outside the door I think.” Fry couldn’t fight them at his best, but bruised, tired and with a broken arm, he stood a negative chance.

“Let me take care of them. I’ve scoped the place out, they got a lot of guards but a big enough commotion should draw most, if not all of them away. Give me like five minutes and you’ll be free to just walk out.”

“Uh… all right, wait a bit and then leave, got it. You going to be okay though? There are a lot of them and they’re pretty scary.” They’d certainly beaten up Fry real good and it hadn’t seemed to tax them much if at all.

Bender scoffed. “They’re _plants_ , how tough can they be? I’ll be fine, I’m not some fragile meatbag like you. You owe me for busting you out though. The next ten dates or so are all on you, got it?”

“Yep, totally fine with me.”

“Cool. I’ll met up with you back on the ship in like… an hour probably. Have it ready to fly before I get there in case I bring company.”

“Okay! Love you and good luck.”

“Eh, back at you meatbag, see you in a bit.” With that Bender pulled away from the window, allowing the moonlight to shine in uninterrupted once more.

The next few minutes were torture. Waiting wasn’t pleasant even at the best of times which this was far from. There was no way to know what was going on with Bender or immediately outside the door and Fry desperately wanted out in general, making time crawl by. There wasn’t even anyway to know how long it had been since Bender had left, one minute, five, _more_? But at long last, just when Fry was sure he was going to be driven mad by all the waiting, there was a muffled commotion on the other side of the door followed by silence.

He waited a bit longer before venturing over to press his ear to it. … Nothing. So, taking a deep breath, he cracked open the door – thankfully it wasn’t locked – and peeked through the gap at the other side. A mid-sized room with a large table in the center; chairs surrounded it and the abandoned remnants of some kind of boardgame were splayed out on top. No guards though and the exit door hung open. Fry was free to go.

Holding his injured arm close, he made sure to pull the jail door closed behind and to disturb nothing as he headed for the open door. On the other side was an empty hallway. Having been dragged here half unconscious, he didn’t exactly know the way back out so… he went left just because.

By some miracle, he managed to stumble his way through only four or five hallways – all empty by some other benign power – before happening upon the entrance hall. He wasted no time making a break for it, going as fast as he dared when each jostle sent a bolt of pain through his broken arm.

He paused as he stepped outside. The air reeked heavily of smoke and more of those weird plant people were hurrying by on their weird creepy root feet. Presumably they were headed to help put out the fire, judging based off the buckets they carried. Thankfully if they even noticed Fry at all, they paid him no mind.

Pulling a bit further away from the palace entrance gave him the room to look back and spot the source of smoke. One entire side of the palace and several of the buildings next to it were on fire, the flames big enough to light up the night and silhouette the folks bustling around, trying to put it out. Yep, that was a pretty big commotion all right and would require everyone available to put it out before it spread too far. … With a grimace, Fry quickly moved on. Hopefully the damage it caused wouldn’t be too terribly bad and no one would be severely injured by it.

He encountered a few more plant people on his way out of the city but thankfully they were all too busy running to deal with the fire to notice his retreat. Once finally outside the city walls, the air was clearer, making it easier to breath. He wasn’t quite home free yet, but he was close. All he had to do was head for the ship, hidden amongst the sand dunes not far from here, and he’d be good to go. Hopefully Bender would be joining him there shortly because he was so done with this particular adventure.


	2. where u at?

Fry woke feeling groggy, slightly nauseated, and with a headache that rivaled his arm for the worst pain in his body right now. Why was it so _hot?_ Despite how much he didn’t want to, he forced open his eyes.

He was in the ship’s pilot’s chair, looking out through the window at the desert. Right yeah, after taking some pain pills with a can of soda he’d sat here to wait for Bender’s return to the ship, ready to start it up the moment he showed up so they could take off as soon as he was on board. Instead, he’d fallen asleep at some point and now it was well into day time, judging based off the bright light glittering off the sand and how dang hot it was in here; he was sweating so much, his shirt was soaked with it and sticking his to his body is places, gross! _Far_ longer than the hour Bender had suggested it would be before he returned to the ship. Which couldn’t mean good things, could it?

With a sigh, Fry started up the ship and cranked up the AC as far as it would go. Instantly as the cold air hit him, he felt a little better. He wasn’t supposed to leave it running when the ship wasn’t in flight but fuck it, he needed it right now. Next, he grabbed his phone – thankfully left on the ship so the plant aliens hadn’t taken it from him like they had with his jacket – and texted Bender. ‘ _u ok? where u at?_ ’

While he waited for a response, he got up to take some more pain pills and down a whole glass of water with it. Except when he returned to the cockpit to check his phone, ‘ _Error, text not received. Try again?_ ’ was his only response. Odd, he’d never got a message like that before. He tapped the ‘ _Try again?_ ’ of course. … But got the same message.

After trying a few more times, he just called instead. It didn’t even ring once. He tried again but… still nothing, not even a voice mail message. … Maybe Bender’s phone parts broke somehow. Which would mean he was damaged and thus likely in trouble.

What could Fry do about it though? He didn’t even know where Bender was. … With today’s technology and lack of privacy, as well as Bender being a factory-made robot, tracking him had be an option.

Even with as dumb as he was, it didn’t take Fry long to figure out how to do it. Just a quick Google search and some fiddling around on his phone and he had a tracker on what he was fairly confident was Bender – it was supposed to be a robot and was the only one around so it had to be him. He was off to the right of Fry’s current location on the map, not up and in the plant city like he was supposed to have been.

Not too terribly far away but still far enough that he _really_ didn’t want to walk over there. He was already sore and in pain, his dang arm broken, and it’d be through the desert at the hottest time of day. But alas, he couldn’t fly the ship over because as soon as it left its hiding spot, the plant aliens would probably see it and landing it again would draw them over. The outcome of which wasn’t likely to go Fry’s way, judging based off his last hostile encounter with them. Damn, the one time he actually had a smart realization and it was this. Why couldn’t he have had his once in a blue moon smart moment _before_ landing them in trouble?

With a groan, he flipped the AC back off. He then stood up and started for the rear of the ship where the exit ramp was. Bender was _probably_ fine, he was Bender after all and a robot, what could a bunch of plants, even if they were angry and mean, really do to him? So when Fry found him, he was going to be mad at him for making him worry and go through this nonsense and he was going to make sure Bender knew that.

Why’d it have to be a desert? Of all the environments his job had ever landed him in, deserts were the worst. … Okay maybe the planets with acid rain had been worse. So really, on the bright side as miserable and hot as he was at least he wasn’t being eaten alive by acid. Not that was really much of a comfort with his head pounding in tune with his broken arm’s throbbing, not to mention all his other bruises. Also, he hadn’t had to trudge through the acid rain like he’d had to do through more deserts than he cared to consider. So yeah, deserts were the worst.

As he crested over top of another sand dune, the city became visible to his left again. So did a landfill, off to the side of the city and immediately in front of him, starting not far from the bottom of the dune he stood atop. A quick glance at his phone revealed that that was where what he was tracking – which he still couldn’t be totally sure was Bender but it was his best bet right now – should be. Maybe Bender had hidden and gotten himself trapped in a fridge or heck, maybe a safe since if he saw one there was no way he wouldn’t try to rob it, or something else similar that had been tossed out here. If so, as soon as Fry saved him, he was going to be the one having a good laugh at Bender’s expense for once because that was hilarious. There was no way Bender would ever be able to live it down.

Already grinning at the thought of how Bender would react to being saved from such a situation, Fry picked up the pace a little, letting gravity help him jog down the slope. Thankfully it didn’t look as if any plant folk were around but he should probably be as fast as he could to make sure he was…

On the outskirts of the landfill, tossed haphazardly alongside and partially covered by more generic looking trash was the distinct shape of the lower half of a robot. … Bender!?

Fry jerked back into motion from the halt he’d come to upon first catching sight the way the sun glinted off the dull metal of the robot’s body. It took him only a handful of seconds to reach it.

Even with the top half being covered by a tattered tarp, it was obvious that something was wrong. The distinct smell of spilled motor oil and alcohol wafted up from the robot, recognizable even through the hot garbage smell coming from the trash heap a few meters away. Only one leg was attached and only barely, the other lay a short distance away as if tossed there disdainfully. Pulling aside the tarp, revealed that it had indeed once been a bending unit. The head was partially crushed similar to how one crushed a beer can in their fist, and forcibly pushed halfway down into the body, the top dented in. What little of the mouth plate that was visible was shattered, only shards remained. There was no trace of the eyes, the metal hood around them bent inward. The body was so bent and dented that the chest compartment door had fallen off, also missing as was one of the arms.

Despite the heat, Fry went cold at the sight of it. But… but… it didn’t _have_ to be Bender. Bending units all look rather similar and with how much damage had been done to this one, it would be indistinguishable from any other, right? So it didn’t have to Bender, couldn’t be in fact, right? … A quick glance at his phone revealed that this robot was the one he’d been tracking. … Still didn’t mean it was for sure Bender though.

Bender wouldn’t die like _this_. No way, he’d always been nigh on indestructible and far too good at getting away from law enforcement to ever have _this_ happen to him. So… it wasn’t Bender. It was just another random bending unit that had somehow ended up on this planet the same time as them. Unlikely but unlikely things happened all the time to and around Fry. Maybe Flexo had stowed away on board for some reason and got himself in trouble, possibly even been mistaken for Bender; with the head pushed into the body like that it was impossible to tell if there was a metal beard or not.

So then… then… where _was_ Bender? If he’d been able to, he’d have gone back to the ship when he’d said he would. … Maybe he’d been captured and imprisoned? No, he could just bend the bars and get himself out which would’ve angered the guards even more when he got out and then… who knows what would’ve happened? Maybe he ran out of fuel somewhere in the city or palace and needed help. Fry should go look for him there. … But first…

He carefully lowered himself to ground by the mangled robot. He was just going to make absolutely sure it wasn’t Bender before moving on. There was no way it _was_ but… he just had to make sure. Lucky for him, the scorching sun up in the sky was positioned perfectly to allow him to look into the bent and dented chest compartment without having to touch anything or get too terribly close.

Inside was shards of brown tinted broken glass, which could only be the shattered remains of beer bottles. Something any robot would be smart to carry since they ran on the stuff and thus told Fry nothing. Other than that, there wasn’t much in there, which boded well since Bender liked to steal things and thus almost always had something stowed away inside himself. … Except for the fact that, if he had stolen anything it would’ve been from the plants’ palace and thus, they probably would’ve taken it all back, especially since the door had literally been broken off during whatever had happened. So… that told Fry nothing either. …

Bender liked to keep a little waterproof bag that contained things that only held sentimental value in his chest compartment, kept in place out of easy sight with a small magnet. He’d shown it to Fry a few times, one of those times being not long ago and had even told him a few of things that were inside, including a note that Fry had drawn him ages ago, not long after they’d started dating, and the ring Fry had proposed to him with a couple years ago.

Taking a deep breath, Fry forced himself to put his good hand into the robot’s chest cavity – it seemed more a gaping hole than a compartment now. Even being exceedingly careful of the broken glass, it didn’t take him long to find the little bag. He pulled it out to get a better look at it. … It was Bender’s. He didn’t even have to open it to know that because it looked the same and what were the chances of another bending unit not just ending up here but also have the exact same kind of bag and kept it in the same place as Bender did?

Fry opened it anyway though – hard with a broken forearm but doable – because what if…? But no, the ring and the note were inside, as well as a few other things that Fry didn’t dare look at long before closing the bag again. It was none of his business and Bender would be angry if he caught him snooping. Except… Bender _couldn’t_ be angry anymore because he was… dead. Was that even the word to use for a robot? Maybe ‘destroyed’ would be better? Didn’t matter though, the word used didn’t change anything about it, Bender was gone.

His vision blurring with tears as the full impact of that hit him like a freight train, Fry clutched the bag to his chest. It couldn’t be real; Bender couldn’t be gone. It just… wasn’t feasible. But it _was_. Bender was gone and it was Fry’s fault; he’d stupidly gotten himself into a mess and Bender had been getting him out of it when _this_ had happened to him, and now… it as too late to do anything about it.


	3. What Next?

Eventually Fry’s tears petered out, though it probably had more to do with dehydration than anything else as it was still a while longer before he felt able to think in any real capacity again. He didn’t feel any better, in fact he felt worse: hollow and dead inside. Thirsty of course too as the malevolent sun continued to beat down on him.

He looked up at Bender again, letting out another pathetic whimper at the sight of his mangled body. What must he have gone through to end up like _that_? And while it was happening, Fry had been sleeping in the ship like a fucking moron. He should’ve… should’ve… done something different. Not fallen asleep and realized Bender was taking too long sooner and gone looking for him to help him out like he’d done for Fry.

And those bastards had thrown his body away as if it were _trash_! How dare they? If any of them were around right now Fry would’ve killed them. Anger was better than grief so he clung to the feeling, giving him the energy to stand up. Blackness danced at the edges of his vision as he did so but he shook it off as he looked around for… what? He didn’t know, something that would tell him what to do next. There was nothing though, just trash, sand, and Bender’s mangled body.

So… what should Fry do next? … It didn’t feel like there was anything he could do. … He stood there for… a while, staring at nothing, his head empty. … If he stayed out here for too long someone would eventually come along and there was a decent chance he’d be caught, reimprisoned and executed. Meaning he should head back to the ship and go home. … Home where Professor Farnsworth, a genius inventor and the smartest man Fry had every personally known, was. Maybe, just _maybe_ all hope wasn’t lost yet and he’d be able to repair Bender.

There was a good chance it was a long shot, given how much damage had been done but what did Fry really know? Despite being married to one he honestly didn’t know that much about how robots functioned. Maybe most of the important stuff wasn’t too heavily damaged and he was just out of power because his fuel cells had been busted or something and thus, he just needed some repairs and a refueling and he’d be good to go again. It was probably a lot to hope for but… it was all Fry had left.

He jerked back into motion. First, he carefully put Bender’s bag into his jean pocket, hopefully he’d get a chance to give it back later. Next he began the search for Bender’s missing parts: eyes, arm, and chest door. He had no luck though and had to give up after looking before even probably five minutes had passed; he couldn’t afford to spend too much time searching both because he might get caught and every minute out here under the sun sapped his dwindling strength a little more. Nothing too important was missing though so they’d just have to make do.

With a sigh, he bent down to grab the leg that had been broken off and… immediately dropped it again because it was painfully hot. Right, the sun tended to do that to metal. Getting Bender back to the ship was going to be both suck and be a bit harder than he’d thought. He didn’t have much choice though. Expecting it this time, he was able to force himself to pick up the disembodied leg and place it in Bender’s chest compartment. He would’ve liked to clear out the broken glass in there but if he tried that cutting himself on it was almost inevitable and he was more than damaged enough already without adding a sliced-up hand to his list of pains. So he’d have to deal with that later.

Now he had to figure out how best to get Bender back to the ship. As much as he would’ve liked to, carrying him wouldn’t have been an option even if his arm wasn’t broken, he was too heavy to carry for more than a few minutes at most. There was the tarp that had clearly been used to drag him out here but… that would’ve felt wrong and disrespectful after it had been used to condemn him to becoming another piece of broken junk on the trash heap. … Bender’s one remaining arm was firmly attached to his body, dragging him by it was an option. It wouldn’t be fun but it wasn’t looking like Fry had any other options if he didn’t want to use the tarp.

Accepting his fate, Fry bent down and grabbed Bender’s hand. The heat made it hurt to touch but having been under the tarp it wasn’t quite as bad as it could’ve been. So he gritted his teeth and pushed past it as he gripped tight and pulled Bender around to start heading back to the ship.

Fry had always known Bender was heavy, even if he was hollow and otherwise filled with a lot of circuity and other advance tech stuff, he was still mostly metal. But dragging him one handed through the sand was far worse than Fry ever would’ve predicted. His body sunk down into, making it that much harder to pull him along. Fry’s arm ached horribly from the strain of it. Coupled with the pain of gripping so tight to his sun heated hand, made him wish he could let go or switch hands. The former wasn’t an optioned at all, no way would he ever leave Bender here, the latter would’ve been tempting if his broken arm didn’t already hurt like hell while just dangling uselessly.

So Fry kept plodding on and on The worst part was going uphill, when he had to fight gravity as well as the sand’s pull. Going down was easier but brought with it the risk of losing his balance on the slope. How difficult would it be to get up if he fell over? Would he even be able to? … He wasn’t sure and thus he did his best to not to have to find out.

He’d been walking for _ages_. Dragging Bender’s body surely slowed him down as did the continued punishment from the sun, leaving him dazed and dehydrated, but… he should’ve reached the ship by now, right? Surely he had to be close. Maybe on the other side of this dune. …

Nope, upon reaching its peak all he saw was more sand dunes. Despite his disappointment, he continued onward without pausing because what else could he do?

How could the sun still possibly be so high in the sky? It felt like it had been at its zenith for far too long, surely it had to start going down soon. But even if it did, it would be _hours_ before it descended far enough for the heat to start to die down enough to be significant. If he was still on this planet when that happened it would mean he didn’t find the ship and was thus royally screwed.

What if he did miss the ship though? It was pretty much a straight shot back from the landfill but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have accidentally not gone straight. He could’ve passed right by it who even knows how long ago? … He’d die out here for sure if he had.

Wouldn’t that just be awesome? Especially after Bender had been mangled during his plan to get Fry free. And what a way to die just in general; lost in a desert after going probably not even a full mile away from the ship and salvation. _Only_ he would ever be dumb enough to…

The ship came into view as he crested another wretched dune. If he’d still believed in any sort of deity, he’d have been profusely thanking them at the sight. He wasn’t doomed to die a moron who couldn’t even walk in a straight line. Even better, it was all downhill from here, allowing him to pick up the pace a little.

Reaching the ship’s shadow was a blessing, it was noticeably cooler and an escape from being directly under the sun. Overall, it wasn’t much but it was wonderful. Salvation and the way home being right there helped a lot too.

Letting go of Bender’s hand at last, unsurprisingly revealed that his palm was burnt and lightly blistered. The top of his hand and arm were covered in an entirely different kind of burn; sunburn, ugh. Next time they had a mission to deliver something to any kind of desert, he was going to refuse to go because _fuck_ deserts.

Gritting his teeth, he reached into his pocket to pull out the ship’s key fob. First he disabled the alarm and unlocked it then he pressed the button to make the entry hatch open and boarding stairs descend.

After putting the key fob back in his pocket, he bend down and forced himself to grab Bender’s hand again, hissing in pain as he did so. Just a little bit more though and they’d be on their way home. … Now he had to get Bender _up_ the stairs though. He whimpered at the thought but… he had no choice.

Fry stepped up first. Lifting Bender off the ground enough to pull him up the stairs would’ve been fairly easy with both hands but with just one that was already aching, it was hell. He somehow managed to do it though, flinching at the loud clang Bender’s body as he hit each stair on the way up. It felt wrong to man handle is his body like that but it was the best Fry could do.

Closing the hatch with a sigh of relief, he paused to catch his breath. The air on the ship was hot and stuffy though without even occasional tiny breeze to almost feel like it might cool him off even a little. So he gritted his teeth and dragged Bender up to the cockpit. He maneuvered him up next to the pilot’s chair where he would stay until they got home and disembarked.

Fry turned the AC on full blast as he started up the ship properly. He wanted oh so desperately to collapse into the pilot’s chair. But if he did, he wouldn’t be able to get himself back up for a while at least. So before he could allowed himself that rest, while the ship’s engines were warming up, he went to the bathroom and to the one shower the ship had to stand under it fully clothed.

Unfortunately, the water wasn’t anywhere even close to cold but it was better than nothing even if it didn’t sting his sun burnt skin. And he was thirsty enough that it tasted like heaven. Who know lukewarm water from a shower head could ever taste so good?

Once he was fully soaked and had drunk enough to start to fill a bit sick, he turned it off and returned to the cockpit. It was much cooler now, especially since he was sopping wet, and it was _wonderful_. He collapsed into the pilot’s chair with a heavy sigh, Leela was probably going to be mad at him for getting it wet later but he didn’t care.

And now all he had to do was fly the ship home. Easier said then done with one burnt hand on top of how utterly _exhausted_ he was. But it was another one of those things in which he didn’t have a choice about if he wanted to go home, so no use wasting time feeling miserable about it. It was time to go home and _hopefully_ get Bender repaired if that wasn’t possible then… it didn’t bare thinking about right now, Fry had to focus for a little bit longer.

~

Maneuvering the ship into the Planet Express hanger was difficult and the landing was rough and rocky, banging up against part of the hanger door and probably denting both it and the ship’s hull, judging based off how loud the sound was. But somehow against all odds, Fry had successfully made it back home. He might’ve been proud of himself if he’d had the emotional capacity to feel anything other than exhausted. Now all he had to do was get Bender’s body to the Professor, _hopefully_ for repairs, and he could finally rest properly. He’d dozed some on the way back, trusting the auto-pilot to stay on course and alert him if he needed to swerve to avoid something, luckily such a situation hadn’t come up.

Blackness ate at his vision as he stood up. He had to grab the back of the pilot’s chair to keep from falling back into it. Thankfully it passed, allowing him to bend over and grab Bender’s hand again. It was no longer painfully hot but his hand was already burnt and blistered so it hurt anyway. Just moving in general hurt both because he was covered in bruises from the beating the plant guards had given him what felt like ages ago now and because every inch his exposed flesh was covered in the worst sunburn he’d ever had in his entire life, and that was saying something because he was the kind of idiot who often forgot to put on sunscreen. Just a little bit more though and he could rest. So, gritting his teeth against the pain, he started for the rear of the ship.

Leela was waiting below as soon as the hatch opened and stairs descended. “What took you so long? And why…” She froze, the suspicion in her gaze and stance melting away. “What happened to you? You look _awful_. And why are your clothes damp?”

“That bad, huh?” His voice felt rough and sore. How long had it been since he’d last said anything? “I got to see the Professor. Where is he?”

“His lab, I’m pretty. Where’s Bender?”

Fry didn’t have the energy to answer that question with words so he didn’t bother even trying. Instead he started down the stairs, pulling Bender behind him, wincing at every clang as his body made going down.

Leela gasped. “Is that… W-what the fuck happened to him?”

“Later, got to see the Professor first.”

Leela said something more behind him as he passed her but Fry was no longer paying attention. He just had to make it to the lab and then he could rest and when he woke up, Bender would be better. The Professor _had_ to be able to fix him, he just had to, Fry had come too far and been through too much getting Bender back here for that not to be the case. So just a little bit more and everything would be fine again.

Amy and Hermes were in the conference room when Fry entered, followed by Leela. He ignored them, letting their questions and conversation wash over him as he continued doggedly onward towards the lab. In the hall, Zoidberg joined the entourage with more questions and talk that Fry didn’t bother listening to. At least they all stayed out of the way though.

The lab doors were unlocked, allowing Fry to barge right in. Fuck whatever else Farnsworth might be working on, Bender was _infinitely_ more important.

“Professor, I need your help.” Fry picked up his pace as he made a beeline for where Farnsworth was messing with one of his devices. “It’s Bender, you got to fix him.”

“Oh uh… hmmm…” Farnsworth turned to face him as Fry reached him. He then turned to look Bender’s body over, adjusting his glasses as he did so. “He’s in pretty bad shape. What happened to him?”

“I… I don’t know. I wasn’t there when it happened. You got to fix him.”

“I don’t know if I…”

“Please, _please_ , you _have_ to.” Fry was quickly growing close to the edge of tears again. “ _Please_.” He couldn’t lose Bender, especially not like this, not when it was his fault. “Please.” He would get on his knees and beg if he had to, what little dignity he’d ever had meant nothing in the face of Bender’s death.

Farnsworth grimaced slightly as he continued to study Bender, hunching over a bit more to get a better look. “Well, I… hmmm…” He looked back up at Fry. “His body’s unsalvageable but I suppose it’s possible what’s colloquially referred to as his brain might still be intact or at least not damaged beyond repair. So… I can’t promise anything but I’ll try.”

“Thank you.” Fry eyes blurred with tears of relief as he handed the Professor, Bender’s hand. If anyone could fix Bender it was him and Fry had full confidence that he would be able to. And that meant Fry could rest properly at last. When he woke up, Bender would be fixed and everything would be all right again. He glanced around, spotting the closest place he could rest: the chair at Farnsworth’s desk. He stumbled over to it and collapsed into it with another mumbled, “Thank you.” He was drifting off to sleep with seconds.


	4. You Got to Fix Him

Fry woke up in a hospital room, a real one, not the sorry excuse for a medical facility that Zoidberg ran in the Planet Express building. He still hurt but not nearly as bad and his head was clear. An IV was in his good arm, his hand and wrist wrapped in thick bandages, his broken arm in a proper cast. And he was utterly alone. Which didn’t mean Bender hadn’t been repaired, he wasn’t exactly the type to sit at anyone’s bedside for longer than a few minutes at most. But Fry needed to know fore sure he was okay as soon as possible.

Shaking off the last dregs of sleep, he sat up and looked around. His personnel effects had been placed on the bedside table, including his wallet and phone – put on charge by a kind soul – and the bag he’d taken from Bender’s chest compartment. If Bender had been here, surely he would’ve taken it back, right? … Perhaps Fry hadn’t been out for long enough for him to have been fully repaired, probably, right? He’d been pretty beat up so it made sense that it’d take a while to have him up and running again.

Fry gingerly grabbed his phone off the table and turned it on. After some consideration, he quick dialed Leela’s number; if Bender wasn’t fully fixed yet, his number wouldn’t work and Farnsworth rarely answered his phone, especially when he was working on something. She picked up on the second ring.

“Fry! You’re awake, how do you feel?”

“Uh… better.” A lot better but that didn’t matter right now. “What about Bender? Did the Professor finish fixing him or is he still working on that?”

“The latter.”

“Oh uh… that’s fine. How much longer is it going to take?”

“I don’t know. But Fry, you know he only said he’d try, he might not be…”

“Welp, I gotta go and get checked out of the hospital and stuff. I’ll see you at the Planet Express later, if you’re there.” Fry hung up.

As always getting checked out of the hospital was a pain and took longer than it really needed to but finally, he was free. He went straight back to the Planet Express building and soon as he was inside, he beelined for the Professor’s lab once more.

Farnsworth was in of course and working on something, presumably Bender. Venturing closer for a better look revealed that that was indeed the case. Bender’s body was in even worse shape than before. His head had been removed, normally not at all a difficult or violent thing to achieve it was supposed to be able to come off, but the way it had been pushed in meant the Farnsworth had had to slice up the upper part of Bender’s body to get it out. Bender’s head had been split open and hollowed out. A bunch of technology stuff that Fry had no clue what did but could only have come from Bender was spread out across the table.

Bender had been utterly and completely dismantled. A rather unsettling and unpleasant sight but one that should be only a stepping stone to him being put back together and made whole again. So, swallowing back his hesitation, Fry stepped forward again. “How’s it going? How long before he’s up and running again?”

“Hmmm… well, I don’t know. There’s no guarantee I can…”

“I’ll leave you to it then. Call me when you’re about to start him back up, okay?” Fry was likely to only get in the way and make it take longer so he quickly left.

He didn’t have anything else to do but wait so… he went to the break room. Leela, Amy, Hermes, and Zoidberg were all already in there, looking up at him as he came in with sympathetic looks.

Zoidberg was the first to speak. “Sorry about the robot. He was a good friend.”

Before Fry could reply and say that such words weren’t necessary because Bender was going to be fine, Hermes stood up. “I already took the liberty of going over his will,” he said as he strode over to Fry. “You probably won’t be surprised by what’s on it. Here is an official copy.”

He handed Fry a piece of paper. ‘BITE MY SHINY METAL ASS’ was scrawled on it in large sloppy letters. Bender had signed his full name under it in messy barely legible cursive. Which was indeed not at all surprising. It probably would’ve been funny under different circumstances.

“But as his husband,” Hermes continued, “all his stuff should by default go to you, unless he had debts that need to be paid. Come talk to me in my office later when you’re ready to fill out the paper work for it, I’ll help in any way I can.” He awkwardly patted Fry on the shoulder before going back to his seat.

Fry glared down at the paper again. “You guys don’t seem to have much faith in the Professor being able to fix him.” How dare they give in that easily? Bender was their friend too _and_ they’d all been working for the Professor long enough to know he was capable of almost anything he put his mind to.

“Robots aren’t designed to be easily fixable once broken.” Amy made it sound as if that automatically meant that there was no hope for Bender. “Especially the models meant to work in factories and stuff like Bender. Think about it, the company makes more money if you’re forced to buy a whole new one every time one breaks instead of fixing it.”

“That… that’s really fucked up.” No wonder Bender often said stuff about hating humans if the people who made robots were doing shit like that.

“Yep, I guess so. But that’s just how it is.” Her expression and voice softened. “Sorry about Bender though, I know he meant a lot to you. We’ll all miss him.”

Fry should tell her and all of them that they were wrong and that Bender was going to be okay, the Professor just needed some time to do the repairs. But… but… what if they were right? What if not even Farnsworth could fix him? Fry had initially decided on this course of action as a long shot but had somehow convinced himself that it was the most likely outcome when it… actually probably wasn’t, huh? Which meant…

“I believe the Professor can fix him,” Leela said, drawing Fry’s gaze up to her. “If _anyone_ can it’s him.”

Fry nodded, swallowing back the tears that had threatened to form at the line of thought he’d been going down. There was still hope even if it wasn’t much but it was there so no use giving up on it yet. “Thanks.”

“Of course. Now come sit down and tell us what happened.” She and Amy scooted to one side of the couch, making room for him.

“Yes!” Zoidberg agreed with a bit more enthusiasm than was necessary. “Tell us about your adventure. How’d it happen?”

With a sigh, Fry awkwardly folded up the copy of Bender’s will and put it into his pocket before walking over and sitting down. “There’s uh… not really a whole lot to say. I… did something dumb and got beaten up and arrested for it, thrown in jail and stuff. They were going to execute me but then Bender broke me out. To do that he had to make the guards that were guarding the jail and stuff leave by making a big distraction somewhere else. He said he was going meet me back at the ship in like an hour but… he never showed.” Instead Fry had fallen asleep like an idiot. “So, I went looking for him and uh… found him like that. I had to drag him through the desert heat back to the ship which is why I’m all sun burnt and stuff.”

“What’d you do that go you in so much trouble?” Amy asked because one of them was bound to.

Fry could try to lie and try to make himself seem marginally less stupid but he was bad at the kind of thing. Might as well just get it over with instead of them catching him at a lie, forcing him to admit it anyway. “I… well… uh… The aliens were sentient plants. And um, turns out they sleep in little clay pots with soil in them and they look an _awful_ lot like a standard potted plant when they do. So uh… I was sent in to see their monarch to deliver the package, only one person is allowed in to see them at a time for some reason. And uh… they were napping so I thought I was alone and… well, I really needed to pee. There weren’t any bathrooms around so a potted plant would’ve been a good place to do it, right? So I just kind of… you know… They weren’t very happy about it and ordered their guards in to beat me up and drag me to jail to be executed later.”

There was a general murmur from all four of them, even Zoidberg, that that had been exceedingly stupid. Which was a hundred percent accurate because it was probably one of the dumber things Fry had done. Probably far from the dumbest though considering the large breadth of things he’d done while working this job, sometimes with Bender or at his suggestion, that had proven to be less than smart. But this was undoubtedly the worst because it resulted in not just himself getting hurt and almost killed but Bender _actually_ getting killed. And there was a good chance even Professor Farnsworth wouldn’t be able to bring him back to life.

“Yeah,” he said looking away from all of them. “I shouldn’t have ever insisted on leading that mission. I’m clearly not fit for anything other than following orders. And even that I’m bad at.” Why had he even been kept around for so long? He should’ve been fired ages ago.

“Well,” Leela said, “other than the whole insulting an alien race’s ruler by peeing on them while they slept which is terrible and astoundingly stupid, I think you did pretty good. You did manage to fly the ship safely back home even despite having a broken arm and burnt hand.”

“Not to mention,” Hermes added, “delirious from heat stroke, dehydration, and grief.”

“Yeah, I for sure couldn’t do that,” Amy said. “So good job on that part at least.”

“I… guess there is that, huh? The autopilot probably did most of the work though.” He didn’t even remember the flight back. His memories between finding Bender’s body and begging Farnsworth to repair him were foggy at best, he’d been quite out of it. “I did land it in the hanger without crashing though, somehow. But uh… still next time someone needs to come with us to supervise. I’m too stupid to be trusted and Bender would get us into trouble by getting caught stealing something or saying something rude to the wrong person.”

They all murmured some kind of agreement to that. Not even bothering to try to claim he wasn’t stupid because it would’ve been a lie. … Hopefully there _would_ be a next time with Bender though.

The next few weeks were probably the worst Fry had ever had to endure. Modern technology made healing fairly fast but painful and unpleasant buy hey, at least he was out of the cast and bandages in just over a week instead of however long it would’ve taken to heal without such technology. They even had a fix for sunburn so even if it still hurt like hell, it was for a shorter time. But dealing with all that paled in comparison to waiting for news about Bender, good or bad.

With every day that passed Fry became more and more sure that Bender couldn’t be repaired. And yet, until Professor Farnsworth declared he’d failed, there was still hope and thus Fry couldn’t begin to grieve properly even if he’d wanted to. All he could do was wait and hope for good news while dreading the worst.

All the while his guilt weighed on him as if he were still dragging Bender’s mutilated corpse through the desert sands. If he hadn’t gotten himself into trouble in the first place, Bender would’ve never had to break him out. If he’d just not fallen asleep while waiting for him, he might’ve been able to go out and save Bender before it was too late. Or heck, if he’d just not insisted on proving himself to be capable of leading a delivery mission every once in a while, they never would’ve ended up in that situation either. So really it was all his fault.

He didn’t dare venture into the lab to ask for an update again for fear of what he might see or be told. Instead he hung around the Planet Express building, waiting for Farnsworth to come out. He didn’t even go home other than for two lonesome awful nights because it was empty, way too quiet and had too many reminders of his life with Bender. The others expressed concern over this behaviour multiple times but he wouldn’t be able to rest properly until this was resolved one way or the other.

His guilt and growing fear that this ‘adventure’ would have a sad ending kept him up at night. Which served him well as he was lying awake on the break room couch sometime past midnight when his phone rang. Bored and lonely enough to answer even a scam call, he rolled over to grab it off the coffee table. … It was Professor Farnsworth. He almost never called so…

“Hello.” Fry tried to keep his tone as neutral as possible. The call might not have anything to do with Bender and even if it did, it might not be good news. So he shouldn’t let his hopes get too high. … He couldn’t help himself though, he wanted Bender to be alive again so bad.

“Good news Fry, I’ve finished reconstructing Bender.”

Fry froze, almost not daring to move lest it prove to be a dream and moving too much would break it. “Really?”

“Yep.” He was likely intending to say more but…

“I’ll be over right away.” Fry hung up and quickly stumbled off the couch to run to the lab.

“Oh, that was fast,” Farnsworth said, turning to fac Fry as he burst through the doors.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve been sleeping on the break room couch since I got back. Where’s Bender?” Even as he asked, he got his answer.

Farnsworth had built Bender a whole new body. The design was mostly the same but sleeker and shinier, to the point of being almost reflective. Not yet powered up, he lay on the table face up.

“Since it’s impossible to purchase a blank bending unit, I had to make a whole new one,” Farnsworth said, gesturing to him. “And while I was at it, I made some improvements to the design, expensive ones mind too so you two owe me. He’s made of sturdier, lighter metals, and is far more fuel efficient. Also, he’s got…”

“Awesome cool, let’s start him up.” Fry was tired of waiting, he wanted to talk to Bender again _right now_. They could hear all about Bender’s shiny new improvements later.

“Yes, yes, but before we do that. While I can promise a functioning robot with Bender’s base personality code, these things weren’t exactly meant to be repaired so I had to replace a quite a few things. Where applicable I transferred as much of the data from the old damaged parts onto the new better parts. How much the corrupted data I couldn’t transfer or the parts being new and different will change things, I can’t say until he’s been up and running long enough to get some data on it.”

“So… what you’re saying is he might have amnesia?”

“Definitely not full amnesia, but partial perhaps, or he might just no longer be able to recall a handful of random events. Or something else about him may be different. I literally had to rewire his whole brain basically, it’s hard to do that while keeping everything exactly the same.”

“You tried your best though?”

“Of course.” He sounded offended by the mere suggestion he might not have. “What do you take me for? A lazy nit-wit like yourself? Never. If anyone can repair a machine’s mind that’s been damaged beyond repair, it’s me.”

“All right.” That’s all Fry could ask for and anything was better than nothing. “How do we turn him on?”

Farnsworth reached into his lab coat and pulled out a palm-sized remote. “Here.” He handed it to Fry. “You do the honors.”

The remote had two buttons on it, one that had the universal symbol for power which hadn’t changed in more than a thousand years printed on it, the other read ‘SLEEP’. Fry pressed the former.

On the table, Bender’s eyes opened, revealing that they looked same as his old ones. It was several long tense seconds that felt like forever before he moved though. “What’d you do to me?” He gave Farnsworth a suspicious stare as he slowly sat up and shifted to sit with his legs hanging over the edge of the table.

“He fixed you,” Fry answered as he stepped closer. “How do you feel?”

“‘Fixed’ me?” Bender slid off the table and shook out his limbs a little as he looked down at himself. “Ooh, I’m all shiny and sleek now. It’s like I’m brand new but… newer.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Farnsworth cut in before Fry could say anything more.

Bender paused and was silent for a few seconds before responding. “Something that I shouldn’t have survived.”

“And you didn’t. But Fry here dragged your horribly mutilated body back here and demanded I repair it. I couldn’t of course because not even I can work miracles, but I did rebuild you. Your body’s entirely new and only a small handful of your electronics are from your old system.”

Bender grimaced. “That means I died, right?”

“Yep.”

He was silent for a few seconds as he seemed to consider that. “Spooky. Well now I know what happens after you die: a whole bunch of _nothing_. I always suspected that priest bot was scamming people for money. Huh, but now that I’ve officially come back from the dead, I could probably do that too with even more success. Heck, I could probably start my own religion.” He chuckled evilly, rubbing his hands together.

It was good that he was taking the news of his death and revival so well and great to see him already ready to resume cheating strangers out of their money but Fry couldn’t take it anymore. “You’re okay now though right? Everything’s fine again?” It almost seemed too good to be true. And after what Farnsworth had said about maybe something being off with him, Fry almost couldn’t believe it.

Bender’s expression softened as he looked at Fry. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just came back from the dead so honestly, I’d say I’m doing pretty good. I feel a little weird but that’s it. So there’s not need to look at me like that, it’s…”

Fry hugged him. His metal body was cold and hard, not normally what one would think of as comforting but it was to him, even more so as Bender’s arms wrapped around him too. “I missed you so much. And I thought… I was worried that the Professor wouldn’t be able to bring you back for a while there and I just… I’m so glad you’re all right.”

Bender patted him on the back. “It’s good to not be dead anymore.”

Fry was crying again. From relief this time but still Bender would likely tease him for it later but right now he didn’t care, he was too exhausted and relieved to. The last however long Bender had been dead for was with a doubt the worst however long he’d ever had to endure.

“Well, I’ll be going then,” Not even Farnsworth reinserting his presence in the room was enough to get Fry to let go of Bender right now. “before you two get even more gross and sappy. I’ll fill in you about all the improvements I made to your design later when Fry’s not crying on you.”

Bender let Fry hold him uninterrupted for a while after the sound of the lab doors opening and closing announced Farnsworth’s departure. But he had only so much tolerance for such things. “All right meatbag,” he said eventually as he gently peeled Fry off of him, “we should probably head home too. You can tell me everything I missed while I was dead sometime tomorrow, okay?”

Fry nodded before wiping his eyes and nose with his jacket sleeve. “Okay. Love you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I love you too.” Bender took Fry’s hand as they started for the exit. If he was at all bothered by how tightly Fry squeezed back, he didn’t show it. Holding his hand like this was _so much_ better, from here on out Fry would do his best to never take it or Bender in general for granted again.


End file.
